[hnthrowaway121]

This seems kinda unworkable. If I make you an offer today, you may need time to review it, you might want to let your other interview processes complete and then negotiate, and ultimately you might choose another offer. In the meantime I need to still be interviewing and finding good candidates - I can’t give them an offer same day if I’m already negotiating with you. But I can’t just stop the interviews after making an offer, because not all offers lead to hiring.

[bastawhiz]

If you're min-maxing candidates, that's on you. If you're not sure that another candidate will be a better fit or not, set your bar higher. If you can't be excellent to the people you intend to hire because your processes optimize for filling headcount and pipeline efficiency, that says a lot about you and your company culture.

[hnthrowaway121]

So many assumptions here.

As a candidate, I’ve had situations where I got two offers at the same time. BOTH offers were acceptable, both good companies, and I’m confident I would have been happy and successful in either place. With all that being equal, I chose the company that was in my timezone and I had prior connections with. The other company could have done nothing except go waaay above market rate on the role for me.

Some candidates interview just for practice, some are keeping options open, some were solicited to interview and weren’t really looking and the want to get to the offer before they really even begin making a decision.

Likewise, as a hiring manager, I’ve had cases where more than one candidate meets the bar for a single role and I would have been happy to hire either, so “falling back” to the next person isn’t a reduction in standards.

There’s so many reasons that you don’t always hire the first candidate you make an offer too.